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I'm gonna cast my vote for the baby reacting to the situation, as well as reacting to your reaction. DD goes through this everytime we go visit her cousin. At 3 months, her reaction was probably just due to the noise and my irritability. At 6 months, she was showing empathy by looking worriedly at him and trying she show him toys. At 10 months, she pointed at him while signing nurse. I strongly believe that we are modeling empathy to them in a manner that they can't help but absorb and relate to others. We are nurturing very sensitive beings which may mean a few difficult days!We've managed the situation by limiting the amount of time there and believing that our modeling of AP ways will offer alternative ideas to them... Because they are family, we can't cut them off but have seen the tension decrease with time as the kids get older.
